Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Dice-K on mound for Victor reunion

Major League managers don’t worry about the same things as the general public when it comes to Spring Training. For example, the fact that Daisuke Matsuzaka has given up 10 earned runs over his last two Grapefruilt League starts isn’t keeping Terry Francona awake at night.

“I’m not real concerned about anyone in camp,” Francona said. “We want to leave here healthy and have guys feeling good about themselves. I haven’t looked at anyone’s ERA. I know Daisuke got hit around a little bit the other day. I know if we took Daisuke out of the rotation tomorrow, I wouldn’t want to play for me. We’ve got to let these guys get ready.”

Matsuzaka will take the ball on Tuesday afternoon against Victor Martinez and the Detroit Tigers.

The Red Sox look forward to seeing Martinez again. In particular, Francona looks forward to seeing Martinez’s son Victor Jose, who was a regular in the clubhouse throughout last season.

As for Victor Jose’s dad, the Red Sox fully appreciate what he brought to the table during his year and a half as the team’s primary catcher.

“All the things people said about him came true in a hurry,” Francona said. “Great kid, solid professional, really good hitter. That won’t change because he went to another team.”

Jarrod Saltalamacchia won’t be on tomorrow’s trip, but he enjoyed his short time as teammates with Martinez.

“It was fun,” Saltalamacchia said. “The guy plays the game every single day. He never took a day off. He worked hard, loved the game. it was cool to actually see a guy like him do that.”

And once Martinez accepted Detroit’s offer over Boston’s, it opened up a starting job for Saltalamacchia.

“I think it worked out,” Saltalamacchia said. “He went over to Detroit. I don’t know how much catching he’s going to do, but he’s set as far as knowing where he’s going to be for the next four or five years. That’s good for him and obviously it will help me out here.”

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

3 Comments

How true if Aceves is healthy, he would be a valuable asset to the bullpen. I followed him when he was a Yankee. You can count on Aceves for two solid innings on a given night when he was healthy. I think Cashman has given up on Aceves too soon. Maybe not. We shall see.
Great pitching all around last night!

Great job by Dice-K to keep pace with Verlander. I am pleased that we are winning some close, low-scoring games. Good to see Dice-K pitch well, hope he can keep it up, and not the 10 ER we had the past 2 outings. Good job by Jacoby, also, with the HR and great catch!
I do wonder, since we have heard something about how Dice-K’s and Oki’s families are doing, I wonder about Junichi Tazawa. I hope he’s OK, also! Any news on him, Ian?
GO SOX!

Greg: A great outing by Dice-K. But we don’t know what his next one will be. Boom or bust, pick one. As a fifth starter I am not too (a little) concerned. The key is how Beck and Lackey will fare in the real games. Offense could be nullified by the sub-par outings by the 3rd, 4th starters. I hope not.
We have to be impressed by Lester and Buchholz albeit only spring training games. We have 1-2 punch and who will be the third punch?

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.